Isaiah 1:2-20 - Rebellious Judah

² Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for LORD has spoken. I have nourished and brought up sons, and they have rebelled against me. ³ The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master's crib, [but] Israel does not know; my people does not consider.

⁴ Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, sons who deal corruptly! They have forsaken LORD. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They have gone away backward.

⁵ Why will ye be still stricken, that ye revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. ⁶ From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it, [but] wounds, and bruises, and fresh stripes. They have not been closed nor bound up nor soothed with oil.

⁷ Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Your land--strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. ⁸ And the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a shed in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. ⁹ Unless LORD of hosts had left to us a {seed (LXX/NT)}, we should have been as Sodom, we should have been like Gomorrah.

¹⁰ Hear the word of LORD, ye rulers of Sodom, give ear to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. ¹¹ What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says LORD. I have had enough of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts. And I do not delight in the blood of bullocks or of lambs or of he-goats. ¹² When ye come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand--to trample my courts? ¹³ Bring no more vain oblations. Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies--I cannot bear iniquity and the solemn meeting. ¹⁴ Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They are a trouble to me. I am weary of bearing them. ¹⁵ And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood.

¹⁶ Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. ¹⁷ Learn to do good. Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

¹⁸ Come now, and let us reason together, says LORD, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. ¹⁹ If ye are willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. ²⁰ But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of LORD has spoken it.